y separately published work icon The Butcherbird single work   novel   crime   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 The Butcherbird
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Set in the boardrooms, yachts and waterfront mansions of Australia's most decadent city, The Butcherbird is a boisterous thriller about corruption and excess in the corporate world.

'Jack Beaumont, architect turned property developer, is as surprised as the next person when he is approached by insurance tycoon Mac Biddulph to become the new CEO of HOA, the largest home-insurer in Australia. Seduced at first by the lure of power, Jack soon finds that beneath the glamorous facade of the Sydney business elite lies a convoluted network of corruption. Out of his depth and pursued by piranhas in a fish tank full of money, Jack must unravel the elusive threads or become ensnared himself.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: To Darlene

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2007 .
      Extent: 280p.
      ISBN: 9781741750393 (pbk.)
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Related Works

The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 extract novel thriller (The Butcherbird)
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 3 July vol. 125 no. 6576 2007; (p. 40-46)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

Anecdote and Anthropomorphism : Writing the Australian Pied Butcherbird Hollis Taylor , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology , Summer vol. 1 no. 2011; This paper surveys textual references to the Australian pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis). We begin with my initial encounter with this songbird (in re-worked excerpts from the book Post Impressions), and then expand our review to aboriginal stories, historic ornithological reports and field guides, informal stories, archival Australian periodicals, children’s literature, literary references, and composers’ texts. Many of these reveal the tension between the superlative pied butcherbird vocal abilities and their ferocious hunting prowess. The paper shuns neither anecdote nor anthropomorphism as it attempts a new mode of interspecies narrative. I argue that anecdotes can contribute to an understanding of this understudied songbird. In inventorying pied butcherbird textual references, we find that our stories about them are ultimately stories about us as well—anthropomorphism seems to be an innate human proclivity. Reflecting on the lives of animals is of psychological, intellectual, and metaphysical significance for humans.
Business of the Criminal Mind Leon Gettler , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 18 August 2007; (p. 25)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
More Than a Grain of Truth Ben Hills , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 July 2007; (p. 39)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
Insurance No Guarantee of a Happy Ending Andrew Main , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 July 2007; (p. 10-11)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
Flawed Plot Ruins the Bottom Line John McCarthy , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 June - 1 July 2007; (p. 27)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
Flawed Plot Ruins the Bottom Line John McCarthy , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 June - 1 July 2007; (p. 27)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
Insurance No Guarantee of a Happy Ending Andrew Main , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 July 2007; (p. 10-11)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
More Than a Grain of Truth Ben Hills , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 July 2007; (p. 39)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
Business of the Criminal Mind Leon Gettler , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 18 August 2007; (p. 25)
— Review of The Butcherbird Geoffrey Cousins , 2007 single work novel
Anecdote and Anthropomorphism : Writing the Australian Pied Butcherbird Hollis Taylor , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology , Summer vol. 1 no. 2011; This paper surveys textual references to the Australian pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis). We begin with my initial encounter with this songbird (in re-worked excerpts from the book Post Impressions), and then expand our review to aboriginal stories, historic ornithological reports and field guides, informal stories, archival Australian periodicals, children’s literature, literary references, and composers’ texts. Many of these reveal the tension between the superlative pied butcherbird vocal abilities and their ferocious hunting prowess. The paper shuns neither anecdote nor anthropomorphism as it attempts a new mode of interspecies narrative. I argue that anecdotes can contribute to an understanding of this understudied songbird. In inventorying pied butcherbird textual references, we find that our stories about them are ultimately stories about us as well—anthropomorphism seems to be an innate human proclivity. Reflecting on the lives of animals is of psychological, intellectual, and metaphysical significance for humans.
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (5)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (1)
Last amended 28 May 2008 16:40:08
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X